Reprint ed., Washington, D.C.: Press of B. S. Adams, 1919. The executive is commander in chief of the army and navy; he makes peace and declares war; but Parliament annually determines what sums are to be paid to these military forces. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ncr.2003.0004. Europeans still perceived Spain more as an African country, as in Alexandre Dumas (himself of African descent) apocryphal observation: Africa begins at the Pyrenees (Altaschul 2012: 11), and Enlightened Spaniards tried hard to overcome that. The hereditary senate will also serve as a counterweight to both government and people; and as a neutral power it will weaken the mutual attacks of these two eternally rival powers. Predictably, many of these celebrations were carried out without sufficiently critical and objective approach towards historical data. Bolivar was deeply influenced by the Enlightenment thinkers. They justified themselves by arguing that they were just agents of a greater historical force. As our role has always been strictly passive and political existence nil, we find that our quest for liberty is now even more difficult of accomplishment; for we, having been placed in a state lower than slavery, had been robbed not only of our freedom but also of the right to exercise an active domestic tyranny . Its culminating piece of legislation was the Venezuelan Constitution of 1819, officially adopted on August 15, but quickly made obsolete by the creation of the Republic of Colombia on December 17, 1819. Once again, he was inspired by his upbringing of admiration for Classical Antiquity: I have dared to suggest a moral power, drawn from the remote ages of antiquity and those obsolete laws, which for some time maintained public virtue amongst the Greeks and Romans (Bolivar 1819). The Lycurgus legislature produced glory, virtue, morality and therefore national happiness (Bolivar 1819). To fully grasp the most brilliant thought of the time, some basic context is required. Castro, P. 2007. State Fullerton. He liked to describe himself as the man of difficulties. Consuls, senate and people all served also as legislators, magistrates and judges. Yet notwithstanding this deformity, the Roman Republic did not suffer from the disastrous discord which might be expected from a leadership consisting of two individuals, both endowed with a monarchs powers (Bolivar 1819). 7482. If the Senate were hereditary rather than elective, it would, in my opinion, be the basis, the tie, the very soul of our republic. See, for example, Madariaga (1951) and Carrera Damas (2003). The Lower Classes . However, as we will argue in this paper, it is precisely due to the nationalist distortions that are likely to occur around the nature and context of the Angostura delivery that calls for a more critical reading of the document. This may not seem groundbreaking today, but in 1819, it was. Angostura bark, a spice made from the bark of the tree Angostura trifoliata. http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226016191.001.0001, http://www.archivodellibertador.gob.ve/escritos/buscador/spip.php?article9987, http://www.archivodellibertador.gob.ve/escritos/buscador/spip.php?article10971, https://www.ensayistas.org/antologia/XIXA/bolivar/bolivia.htm, https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Carta_de_Bol%C3%ADvar_al_general_Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Flores_(1830), http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/267/26702702.pdf, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X03006849, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500001534. Amrica Latina 4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2515360. Do we not read in Montesquieus Spirit of the Laws that laws should be suited to the people making them, and that it is extremely unlikely that the laws of our nation will suit another? (Bolivar 1819). The Bourbons had a clear mercantilist economic program: the Indies were to be ruled only for the benefit of the mother country, Spain (Annino 2015). But, such celebrations should be devoid of nationalist distortions, and they should be cleansed of the typical hero-worship that has taken place in Latin America for the last 150 years, and has accelerated in Venezuela during the last 20 years. I do not solicit the establishment of a nobility, for as a celebrated republican has said, that would simultaneously destroy equality and liberty. Although Bolivar admired British imperialism more for its liberal ethos than for its military might (as opposed to the despotism of Spain), he was still a man of arms, and imbued his political ideas with militarism. He was a staunch anti-colonialist when it came to Spanish America; but he had high praises for the Roman imperial ethos, he seemed content with the British imperialism of his day, and he repeated many of the tropes typical of 19th Century colonialist thinking. A big point of contention between Enlightenment thinkers and their Counter-Enlightenment foes, was about universalism. As early as 1805 (when he made his famous oath of American independence in Romes Monte Sacro), he was already determined to fight for American independence. The Jamaica Letter is mostly about Bolivars attempt to justify his struggle for American independence. Download date: August 25th, 2018. How is everything conspiring against the executive power in a republic? The rationale was that people with any degree of African descent would not be eligible for full representation. The Cortes, assembled in Cadiz during Napoleons invasion of Spain, redacted a very liberal Constitution by the standards of the time. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427. An Address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819) Reprint Ordered by the Government of the United States of Venezuela, to Commemorate the Centennial of the Opening of the Congress (tr. Bolvar had the objective of emerging a plan of governance as he lays out his understanding of the independence movement and his belief on how the future of Latin American nations should be legally structured. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500001534, Andrade, G. and Lugo-Ocando, J., 2018. Similar attempts to debunk myth from reality have not been able to play out in the ways that these efforts were originally intended such as the 2015s 200-year commemoration of Bolivars Jamaica Letter. In 1829, in the mist of continuous crises of legitimacy, some of Bolivars loyalists in Bogota proposed to establish a monarchy, with Bolivar as king, although his title would be Liberator; he would then have a European prince as successor (Lynch 2010: 263). Yet, it is very revealing that, in this and other passages, he has a predilection for Rousseau. Bolivar's speaking style reflected the values of his epoch. His choice of admiration for an ancient Greek city, reveals his militaristic tendency in the Angostura Address: The Republic of Sparta produced more real effects than Solons ingenious creation, even though it seemed a chimerical invention at first. 3(1): 2553. Angostura, 1819" Main Point Summary/Background: Simn Bolvar's "Message to the Congress of Angostura, 1819" is more than the opening speech of a statesman to a constituent assembly; it is a voice that embodied realities of a new revolutionary society in Latin America. the Liberator Simn Bolvar's address to the Congress of Angostura, 200 years after the delivery of this monumental work. It should be strongly proportioned to meet the resistance, which the executive must expect from the legislature, from the judiciary, and from the people of a republic. Again, Bolivar was certainly a big critic of Spanish imperialism, but he did not seem to mind other empires. Let us start by saying that by 1819, Simon Bolivar was a very uncertain man who had lived till then a hectic life. 2018;47(1):7482. If he exists, I certainly have no knowledge of him (Maistre 1965: 80). But, the Bourbons, and especially Charles III, embraced a program of enlightened despotism and absolutism that by 1810, had fully converted the Indies into colonies. hold on the North American continent five. Comercio libre meant that various Spanish ports could trade with the Indies; however, the Indies could not trade with any other country. By then, Bolivars movement was seen as one that intended to establish a Republic for the white criollos, which explains partly why Boves savagely occupied Valencia and executed so many of the white elite (Stoan 1974). Again, Bolivar does not make it sufficiently clear. In China they do not send for their mandarins, military, and literati to the country of Genghis Khan, who conquered them, even though the present race of Chinese are direct descendants of the tribes subjugated by the ancestors of the present Tartars. Carta de Bolivar al General Juan Jose Flores. To a certain extent, this implied moving away from its African roots, and some authors made it explicit that, in order to be more civilized, Spain should be less African (Shubert 1999: 2). In Simon Bolivar's Message to the Congress of Angostura, he states that Latin American people deserve their independence. He ardently defended freedoms, yet he believed that South American nations were not fully prepared for liberal systems. It must be based on the sovereignty of the people, the division of powers, civil liberty, the prohibition of slavery and the abolition of monarchy and privileges (Bolivar 1819). We all owe it our obedience and loyalty. Oxford University Press. That is the goal of this article. 1965. La Gran Colombia: una ilusin ilustrada. Orientalism. The morality of slavery was by no means a settled debate during the time of the Angostura Address. You may begin your work. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, 1. Bolivar acknowledged that federal forms of government were theoretically virtuous, and that democratic systems of checks and balances were to be emulated. The Enlightenment proclaimed the equality of all human beings, on account that we all share a common nature that makes human rights universal. Bolivars choice of despotic governments, once again, reveals that he was a man of his time. and men of philosophical thought (Roscio, Viscardo, etc. Colombia: Civility and Violence, Document #20: Press Release from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Secretariat of the Central General Command of the FARC-EP (2002), Document #21: Statement by Humberto de la Calle, Head of the Government Delegation to the Conversations Table, Humberto de la Calle (2013), Chapter 8. Contemporary anti-colonialists place much emphasis on the acknowledgement of cultural diversity, and Bolivar certainly took it into account when deciding what the best political path for a nation is. Venezuelans were by no means unanimous in their desire to be independent and consequently a bloody civil war began. By contrast, Counter-Enlightenment authors such as Joseph de Maistre argued thus: In the course of my life, I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, etc. The Congress of Angostura is considered Venezuela's second legislative congress, the first being the one that met in 1811. Please look indulgently on this declaration of my political vision, on my heartfelt desires and my earnest pleas, which I have dared to address to you in the name of the people (Bolivar 1819). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, G., & Lugo-Ocando, J. Reporters Without Borders. Most of the figures of the Spanish Enlightenment became afrancesados, thinkers who believe Spain should embrace French customs. How, exactly, does the potential for abuse in a monarchy justify the expansion of executive power in a republic? Bolivars stand on the abolition of monarchy, however, is more problematic. Levenes thesis is only half true. Venezuelas First and Second Republic collapsed, in part because they failed to meet the support of pardos and slaves (Blanchard 2008). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade G, Lugo-Ocando J. Introduction to Political Thought. Devoted to the government because of a natural interest in its own preservation, a hereditary senate would always oppose any attempt on the part of the people to infringe upon the jurisdiction and authority of their magistrates . He was a spirited combatant of monarchies, yet he insisted on being president for life (i.e., a king without a crown). He is directly subject to the legislative body, the senate, and the people: he is the one man who resists the combined pressure of the opinions, interests, and passions of the social state and who, as Carnot states, does little more than struggle constantly with the urge to dominate and the desire to escape domination. The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading. He genuinely emancipated slaves, yet was extremely afraid of a takeover by pardos and all the savage hordes from Africa and America who roam like wild deer in the wilderness of Colombia (Bolivar 1821). Blanchard, P. 2008. After all, despite his authoritarian inclinations, Bolivar was a man of the Enlightenment, and it is safe to say that he would have been happy with open, frank and critical discussion of ideas, not mindless nationalistic worship. In the Angostura Address, Bolivar, typical in his style, praises North American society over and over again: Our legislators were influenced by the provincials, and were carried away by the dazzling appearance of North Americas happiness, thinking that the blessings she enjoyed were owed exclusively to the form of government, and not to the character of the people (Bolivar 1819). He would lead them cross the Andes chain of mountains in modern-day Colombia towards a surprise attack on the capital, Bogota. Framing Pan-Americanism: Simn Bolvars Findings. CR: The New Centennial Review. He failed miserably, the Republic collapsed, and after guaranteeing his own freedom by turning against Francisco de Miranda he managed to flee into exile (Paredes 2015). Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 47(1), 7482. He was moved towards abolitionism by Haitian President Alexandre Petion, who offered him military support in exchange of the attempt to abolish slavery from liberated territories. Did not monarchy exist in France for fourteen centuries? DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt6wrcf5. But, as it turned out, this was just to pay lip service as Bolivar assumed dictatorial powers again and again throughout his ensuing political career. Americans and the French, Bolvar led the. One of the main thesis of that classic work of political philosophy, is that American democracy is not only built on a particular form of government and its institutions, but also on the cultural foundations of Americans (Tocqueville 2004). In order to gain Catholic support, he even outlawed the teaching of Benthams philosophy (which he himself had admired for so long), as the English philosophers views were considered too immoral by conservative clergy. The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading. He attempts to excuse himself thus: Only an imperative necessity, united to a strongly expressed desire on the part of the people, could have induced me to assume the dreadful and dangerous office of dictator, supreme chief of the republic (Bolivar 1819). Timeline for Mexico: 1519-Present; Mexican Heads of State; Mexican Profiles and Personalities; Moments and Events in Mexico. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Bol var and South American Originally published in 1923, as part of the Cambridge Plain Texts series, this volume contains the complete text of Sim n Bol var's address before the Venezuelan Congress at . Although some historians still debate this (Damas 1983; Draper 1968) it does not seem to be the case. This would become a perennial feature amongst many Latin American caudillos ever since and something that would dominate most of the regions politics and society for the next century (Castro 2007). ), EZLN Command (1993), Chapter 4. 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